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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MrMyth" data-source="post: 5573301" data-attributes="member: 61155">Well, the rules tell us that a creature knows when it is marked. That tells us that marking must be obvious in some way - the common idea is that it represents a fighter being in your face, and distracting you from other combatants.  But, as you note, it becomes harder to conceive for those who might mark from a distance, or through non-martial means. But if divine or arcane magics are in play, its reasonable to assume they can impart that same sense appropriately.  The wolf who is caged in by divine light from the paladin doesn't know what a divine challenge is, of course. But it recognizes that if it starts moving towards the wizard, the light gets brighter and starts to burn, while if it starts moving towards the paladin, the light leaves it alone.  The orc who knows nothing about magic but is marked by a swordmage doesn't know that there is an aegis of shielding upon it. But an arcane link has been forged between the two combatants. It probably feels itself drawn - but not forced - towards the swordmage, and feels magically uncomfortable when facing other foes. This hardly seems an extreme assumption for what a magical ward is capable of doing.  Now, I am confident that there are times and places where knowing the condition placed upon you doesn't make any easy sense. Where one can, perhaps, come up with a reason, but it requires a lot of stretching to do so. But... I'm also confident those situations are few and far between. Are the above examples really that strange? The idea that the swordmage places a magical ward upon an enemy, hindering its attacks against others, and that it can sense these magics in play? Sure, you can flavor it up however you like, but that's what the rules say happens at its base, and nothing seems immersion-breaking about it.  And on those handful of occasions where the rule doesn't quite make sense... its relatively easy to ignore it. I know, I know, claiming that one can fix a problem shouldn't be given as evidence of there being no problem in the first place - I myself argue that all the time.  But for a situation that comes up so rarely, due to a rule that the rest of the time only helps run the game, I don't see it as a particular issue.</blockquote>

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